← All eventsBelgian Waffle Ride California
The 'Hell of the North of gravel' — a ~120mi/~3,050m dirt + singletrack + road hybrid with hike-a-bike sectors, the flagship of the BWR Quad-Tripel Crown. Date approximate (~first Saturday of May).
The self-styled "Hell of the North of gravel". Around 120 miles and 10,000 feet of paved road, loose dirt and genuine off-road singletrack, out of San Marcos on the first Saturday of May.
The sectors are the event. Named singletrack, sand traps and hike-a-bike stretches where you dismount and run with the bike. This is no fast, uniform gravel grind.
The climbing is punchy, not Alpine: short steep pitches that shred the legs by repetition. Over a 6 to 10 hour day, handling under fatigue decides your finish, not watts alone.
Who finishes, and how
Patterns like these, drawn straight from 2025 race data, are baked into how Beina coaches you for this event.
Is Belgian Waffle Ride California for you?
- Gravel riders who can handle a bike, not just push watts. The singletrack and hike-a-bike sectors reward clean lines and punish tired, sloppy riding.
- Punchy climbers over steady diesels. The 10,000 feet comes in short steep repeats, not long cols, so it suits riders who can absorb effort after effort.
- Anyone who enjoys a surface-switching puzzle. Road power, dirt handling and the willingness to run with the bike all matter in the same day.
- Riders happy on a genuine long day out. At Waffle distance that is 6 to 10 hours, and the finishers are the ones still fuelling through the chaos.
Training plan for Belgian Waffle Ride California
A training plan for Belgian Waffle Ride California isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Road power, dirt handling and hike-a-bike grit, all demanded in a single day.
- Around 10,000 feet of short steep climbs that stack up by repetition, not one big col.
- Technical singletrack and sand sectors that punish tired, sloppy handling with crashes and lost time.
- Fuelling 60 to 90g of carbs an hour over 6 to 10+ hours, when the sector chaos makes it easy to forget to eat.
- Progressive mixed long rides building from 3hr toward 6 to 7hr on road, gravel and dirt.
- Short steep repeats: 10 to 15 efforts of 1 to 3 minutes on steep pitches.
- Dirt and singletrack handling plus hike-a-bike drills, practising dismount, run and remount on loose ground.
- Event-simulation long rides at target effort with full fuelling and tyre-choice testing.
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
